Post-War Challenges in The Sun Also Rises Alivia Rogers 12th Grade

In The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway, a moody and reflective tone with an ironic undertone is used effectively alongside formal, concrete diction, simple syntax and antithesis, expressive figurative language, and numerous allusions to the Bible and irony that allow the reader to experience the tumultuous emotions felt by the characters of the novel and enhancing the theme of the suffering of war that continues off of the battlefield. The book contains a chain reaction of broken and dysfunctional relationships in the central characters' search for wisdom, subsequently leading to a plethora of inappropriate behavior that was prevalent in Paris during the early 1920’s and following World War I. Soldiers who survived the bloody conflict returned home only to face new challenges and horrors that hadn’t been previously anticipated.

Jake Barnes narrates the novel with a moody, depressed, and reflective tone. He acts as an observer, noting and interpreting the scenery and events around him. He is deeply depressed since his return for from the war because an injury left him impotent and unable to have relations with the woman he loves, Lady Brett Ashley. Jake is part of the group, but he remains separate from the...